Rat Catchers' Guild
The Rat Catchers' Guild was a shady organisation in the city of Letheras. Whilst they did indeed catch rats, the organisation engaged in many other activities.Midnight Tides, Chapter 12, UK MMPB p.470 Their base in the city was Scale House, a tall, narrow building, squeezed between two much larger ones, a temple archive and the quarters of the Guild of Street Inspectors. Its limestone façade and the formal, column-flanked entrance were covered with masses of carved rats in every pose imaginable. Steps led up to the entrance. The road on which it was located led out of the city to the site of Bugg's gravel quarry. This main thoroughfare ran parallel with the canal and the buildings lining it were mostly over two hundred years old and of a forgotten style.Midnight Tides, Chapter 12, UK MMPB p.443/451/452 Selected members * Bubyrd, mage * Glisten * Guild Secretary * Onyx * Ormly, Champion Ratcatcher * Ruby * Rucket, Chief Investigator * Scint In Midnight Tides Brys Beddict first encountered Ormly, the guild's Champion Rat Catcher in the flooded tunnels below the Eternal Domicile. The guild had been hired to remove the rats whose bodies kept clogging the waterpumps used by the royal engineers.Midnight Tides, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.186-188 Brys crossed paths with the guild's work again when investigating a string of suspicious disappearances in the city. In the Chamber of Contracts and Royal Charters he discovered that as many as ten thousand residents of Letheras had disappeared in the past year. Three years before, the city had contracted with the Rat Catchers' Guild to conduct investigations into the deaths. The city scribes thought the guild profoundly competent as they delivered the agreed upon biannual reports precisely on their due dates.Midnight Tides, Chapter 12, US SFBC p.367-369 Tehol Beddict and Bugg approached the guild for help in Tehol's scheme to bring down the Letherii financial system. They met with the guild's board at Scale House which was crawling with rats. As it turned out, the guild only killed rats who refused avowal to the guild, bringing the others home with them. The board's membership was composed of six individuals of whom half were illusions concocted by the guild's mage, Bubyrd. Tehol revealed that the knew the Guild was in fact a cover for their work as assassins and thieves, much to the board's displeasure. Then Tehol worked out a lucrative three point contract with the Guild. For the fee of half a Peak and investment advice the guild was to secretly escort every tribal refugee in the city to safety on a string of islands Tehol owned. They were also to provide him with the results of their investigation into the city's disappearances and protect his back. During the negotiations, Ormly deduced that Tehol's previous disastrous financial endeavours, which had once ruined the Guild's investments, had been deliberate. Champion Ormly briefly considering not letting Tehol leave the Guild alive. In the end, a deal was struck.Midnight Tides, Chapter 12, US SFBC p.387-392 During the Tiste Edur invasion of Letheras, the guild provided Tehol with intelligence from their spies in the conquered cities.Midnight Tides, Chapter 20, US SFBC p.609-610 By the time the Edur marched into the capital, the guild had already spirited away the city's refugees while many Letherii citizens huddled in the guild's hidden tunnels.Midnight Tides, Chapter 20, US SFBC p.599Midnight Tides, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.725 Acquitor Seren Pedac contacted the guild for supplies to assist her own escape from the city.Midnight Tides, Chapter 25, US SFBC p.766 In Reaper's Gale On his first day as Invigilator of the Patriotists, Karos Invictad outlawed the guild and sent a hundred agents to Scale House. Scores of guild members were arrested, although all later turned out to be illusions.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 3 Quotes Notes and references de:Rattenfängergilde Category:Guilds Category:Rat Catchers' Guild